Wednesday, August 30, 2006

The title of this post refers to how the Toronto media would trumpet Curtis Joseph, when he was a Leaf, as the GREATEST GOALIE NEVER TO WIN THE CUP! Much like Wendel Clark was THE BEST LEFT WING IN HOCKEY when he played.

Uh huh.

Let me start by saying that I like Joseph as a goalie and as a person he's hard to beat. My wife works at Sick Kids and Joseph has donated tons of time and money to that hospital, even after he left Toronto.

As a goalie, he was good, the type of guy who could get hot and win you a series or two. But he never got some pretty good Leaf teams to the finals. He failed in the WC against the Americans when a save or two would have made a difference. And of course there was Salt Lake City.

And even those days are gone.

I think it was frequent commentator Doogie who referred to the Coyotes as "The Island of Misfit Toys", one of these teams cobbled together with a bunch of weird parts.

I'd agree.

Pluses for the Coyotes - a D with Jovo, Boynton, Morris and youngsters Ballard and Seidenberg is pretty decent although I think the last two have a ways to go yet.

With Shane Doan, Nagy, Comrie and the underrated Reinprecht they have some pretty decent offence if Nagy can stay healthy and Comrie can stay focussed. (BTW, wonder what Gretzky said to your man Comrie to light a fire under him last season - maybe "jimmy carson" because he was brutal for quite a while there. Maybe Gretzky reminded him that the furniture business might get a new junior VP if a certain young centre didn't get his head out of his ass.

And I love Doan.

But replacing Geoff Sanderson (25 goals) and decent Mike Johnson with Owen Nolan and Jeremy Roenick? These two guys are not your ultimate team guys.

And Mike Ricci is their third line centre (-22 last season?). And who else on this team can check?

And Joseph between the pipes? He started strong last year and faded badly. Without that strong start this team is in Blackhawk country. Does anyone out there (besides THN - I presume that having ranked these guys 9th in the conference they believe it) figure Joseph to be even reasonably decent?

I think they finish down the road again. This team just seems to be one of those that is always mediocre, regardless.

I think Nolan could bounce back and maybe turn in 1 or 2 more decent 60 point seasons (baring another injury pox). Nolan was also an amazing team leader back in San Jose during the St. Lois series a few years back, so I think he can be a stabilizing veteran force.

Roenick I don't know about. I remember that laser he shot over Belfour, but that was a long time ago. Well worse comes to worse he could try figure skating with Jenny McCarthy.

Joseph is good I think for 50 games or so, but he can't hold out. He burns out. And last season he definitely burned out, and how many people think Morrison can play 30 games and put up enough wins? Watching him on the Leafs he was spectacular to start, they he just seemed to almost collapse from carrying the Leafs on his shoulders. I hate to say it but I thought we had a better chance at the finals with Belfour than we ever did with Cujo.

I would be mildly surprised if they make the playoffs next year, but they're not too bad, and you never know, they could make some noise.

What confuses me about Pheonix is, are they rebuilding? Trying to win now? I have no idea what they're doing, but from all thier moves it seems like they're just going in circles.

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